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Claude Huber

WHO/Claude Huber

Claude Huber was born in Argenteuil, France in 1938. He studied photography in Vevey, Switzerland from 1958 to 1961, later working as a freelance photojournalist in Lausanne. Over 30 years Mr Huber produced photographs and photo stories for international institutions including International Committee of the Red Cross and several United Nations agencies. His work appeared on television and in magazines such as L'Illustré, Elle, and L'Oeil. From the mid 1970s until the early 1990s, he worked for Berlitz Publications, illustrating several travel guides. In 1992, he shifted his focus to photographing architecture. His work was featured in the Architecture Mondiale series by Taschen and he collaborated on projects with the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Mr Huber first collaborated with WHO in 1965, when he sold the Organization photos from a trip to Africa. He worked as a freelance photographer for WHO throughout the 1960s and 1970s, documenting health work in Europe and Asia. In 1967, Mr Huber embarked on a five-week photographic assignment to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, photographing medical research facilities, rehabilitation programmes for the blind, and the Baroda Medical College in India.

For them, harvest time has come: India, 1967For this photo report, Claude Huber visited the Tata Agricultural and Rural Training Centre for the Blind in the Indian village of Phansa, north of Mumbai. With a staff of 25, the Centre used both physical therapy and occupational training to help visually impaired people lead independent lives. At this time, 50 people between the ages of 15 and 40 were receiving training at the school.

Future doctors of Baroda: India, 1967In 1967, Claude Huber travelled to India to produce a number of photo reports for WHO, including this one on the Baroda Medical College. It was published the following year in World Health.

"When we went on assignment, we thought we were going to see the state of the world! We felt we had a real mission, and that produced a sort of aesthetic in our work."
-- From an interview with Claude Huber, March 2009